Obligatory Introductory Post

Hello. I am Elly Belly's Mum, among other things. I am also a wife, M's Mum, a 27 year old, a Pisces. I'm sure anything else relevant will come up.

Why a blog? What is this place?
I'm not really sure yet. I have always been a writer, a journal scrawler, angsty poet and so on, so it's only natural that I would come back and begin yet another blog.

Elly Belly is my (our) 4 year old. He has just been diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS for short), an Autism Spectrum Disorder that basically means he does not meet the criteria specified for Autism or Asperger's Disorder, but had enough of the characteristics to warrant an Autism diagnosis.

This did not really come as a surprise to us. We know he is not a typical four year old, but I guess I am still not 100% convinced he is autistic. But maybe I am in denial. Who bloody knows.

What I do know is that I am angry. I am jealous of my friends and family who have typical children. I am completely overwhelmed. I am upset. I want to talk about it all the time, but don't know who to talk to. Then other times, I don't want to talk to anyone. About anything.

So, what is E like?
He is smart. He likes to talk and he talks a lot. He likes talking about numbers, especially. He doesn't group them or write them or any of those typical autism things. He mostly just asks how old people are, if one number is bigger than another, how many hands make X number, how much is x plus x. He speaks like an adult at times. People seem to expect so much if him because of this. He says things like "those dandelions look divine" and "boys are often taller than girls."

He is kooky. He collects random things and always has. He walked early, at 8 months old, and would walk round grasping an object in each hand; toothbrushes, balloons on strings, chunky textas, sticks. These days, he hoards junk in plastic bags or kid's suitcases, or makes piles of things that nobody is allowed to touch ever ever! At the moment, it is a bottle of hair gel, a can of hair mousse, temporary tattoos and a packet of licorice.

He has a sensory modulation disorder. Aka sensory processing disorder, sensory "issues", sensory defensiveness, whatever you want to call it. We are often asked this question - "And how does that manifest itself?"
Usually, I explain that he can only wear certain types of clothing. His 'uniform' is a pair of girl's leggings and an oversized t-shirt. Some days, he will wear underwear. Some days, he will wear skinny jeans. He likes clothes that are soft, so I use fabric softener and everything is 100% cotton. He likes 3 day old clothes, especially, often stained beyond recognition, but soft from wear. It is not just a matter of making him wear something. I can't put a pair of track suit pants on him on a cold day and expect he will eventually stop fussing about it. He would scream (and has done) for however long it took to remove them and replace them with his "stretchy pants." We spent the winter he turned 3 inside as there was no jumper, jacket or coat on earth that he would wear.
But his sensory processing disorder (SPD) is so much more than just his clothes. He craves highly flavoured foods. He loves lollies and chocolate, anything sickly sweet. He also loves pickled onions (hence the blog address!), olives, pickled cucumbers, vinegar, cracked black pepper, spicy salsa. Fortunately, he also loves fruit. We have been through phases where he has had to wipe his mouth after every bite of food.
He has poor awareness of where his body is in space, but he is not clumsy. He crashes and jumps and bumps like a jumping bean on crack. We gave up long ago on keeping our sofa in a reasonable condition, and have resolved ourselves to the fact that it might as well be an indoor trampoline.
He plays roughly with other children, but only if he can overcome his overwhelming anxiety about actually going near them.

I guess those are the main things because now I'm not sure what to write. He has super dooper anxiety, mainly regarding strangers, new places, and appointments. He wakes several times a night, goes to sleep with me beside him etc.

Things are always improving, but at the same time, thing get much worse.
We have seen a psychologist, numerous GPs, and have been in occupational therapy (OT) for months now. We have also just started visiting with a preschool to try and get him ready to go next year. It is going very well, much better than expected, so that is great.

My battery is at 1% so I think this is a good time to stop. More to come I expect!